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Australian banks have deferred an extra 100,000 loans over the last week, bringing the total value of loans deferred to $200 billion.
According to new figures released by the Australia Banking Association (ABA) half of the new deferrals were home loans.
To date, Australian Banks have deferred 643,000 loans for customers, including 392,000 home loans.
"These new figures, released today, shows banks working overtime to ensure assistance is given where needed to customers who are affected by this crisis," says ABA CEO Anna Bligh.
"The surge in demand for assistance from banks shows that the economic impacts continue to be felt, and by no means is the nation through this crisis."
These deferments are coming at a serious cost to Australian banks.
Commonwealth Bank's (ASX: CBA) loan deferral arrangements are expected to cost the giant around $10 billion.
"These are unprecedented times, and we will continue to take decisive actions to support households and the small business community," CBA chief executive officer Matt Comyn said in March.
"We stand shoulder to shoulder with the Government, the Reserve Bank, our regulators and the banking industry to support the economy at this time."
ANZ (ASX: ANZ) says its deferral program has been provided on $7.5 billion of lending to Australian customers, with assistance given to approximately 15 per cent of commercial lending customers.
Further, it has pre-approved more than $4 billion in lending to 35,000 small business customers with existing transactional accounts and provided temporary overdraft increases for approximately 5,500 commercial accounts.
Updated at 10:58am AEST on 8 May 2020.
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